Issues

This campaign is not about me, never has been, and never will be. My job as your representative is to listen to what you need and want to make your life easier and happier, to figure out if it's doable, to figure out what role I can play to make that happen, and then do everything I can in 24 hours a day to do it. That's it. It's a lot. But it's about you, so I need your views.

You can start here to tell me. Go to the Volunteer button on the home page and add your comments. You can use an alias if you want to rant. I still want to hear what you think about the federal government and how it can improve. Or email me directly at dave@ehrlichforcongress.com. Or come to Capitol Hill to OUR office in January 2027. We'll probably lose the lottery and get a small office in the Cannon Office Building, which is OK. Except now they've discovered lead in the pipes and you can't drink the water. I will get our lead pipes here in the 7th District fixed first on my agenda; we'll drink bottled water in Cannon.

Also right after the March 17 election I'll be identifying every source of federal funding to the 7th district that we get, and how to maximize that. As a blue state, we pay more into the federal coffers than many states, while our government illegally tries to take Illinois funding away that Congress intends that we get.

Another priority is what the federal government can do to make your life easier and happier, especially when it doesn't cost the taxpayer much if anything. And there is, surprisingly, a lot that government can do to improve your life without taking your money and then giving some of it back to you, after the billionaires take their $4 trillion slice of OBBB tax breaks, of course.

Many countries are focusing on happiness, just as the founders did in the Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

We're not doing that well: 22nd and 24th in happiness. We can do better. My opponents are not talking about this yet, but I am, and I'm serious about it. Our federal government can reduce your paperwork burden for taxes and benefits, help your economy, and importantly for this election, dramatically reduce the corruption that is sapping our moral, democratic, and economic futures. See the Corruption section above. And again, surprisingly, many of these improvements are inexpensive, costless, or have high benefit-to-cost ratios.

I have a list of how I'll make your life easier and happier, but I want to add your ideas, complaints, and irritations to the list. I will seriously do what I can to improve them.